Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

An independent non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

CCS Calls for Immediate Investigation of Assassination of Counsel in Blasphemy Case

After repeated threats called to the attention of Pakistani authorities, attorney and human rights advocate Rashid Rehman was assassinated on May 7, 2014. Rehman was defense counsel for Junaid Hafeez, an adjunct lecturer at the Bahuddin Zakariya University, who had been detained on blasphemy charges for over a year. CCS called for immediate investigation of the unknown assailants and further governmental protection for counsel in controversial cases.

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Prime Minister Nawab Sharif
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
info@pmo.gov.pk

President Mamnoon Hussain
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
fais_kham17@hotmail.com

May 23, 2014

Your Excellency:

We write concerning attorney and human rights advocate Rashid Rehman who was killed on Wednesday May 7, 2014.
According to reports, two unknown assailants entered Rehman’s office where he was meeting with two colleagues . The assailants fired multiple shots. Rehman was shot at least three times and died at the scene, while his colleagues were injured and taken to a hospital.

Rehman served as defense counsel for Junaid Hafeez, an adjunct lecturer at the Bahauddin Zakariya University, who has been detained on blasphemy charges for over a year. In the weeks leading up to his assassination, Rehman reported that he had receied multiple death threats, demanding that he drop his defense of Haffez. The threats reportedly motivated the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, where Rehman was a coordinator, to write to the Pakistani central government expressing concern for his safely. Rehman had taken up the case in 2013 when previous defense counsel withdrew after similar threats.

We are deeply concerned about the assassination of defense counsel for an imprisoned scholar. In addition to the deprivation of the right to life of the victim, and harm to the others injured, an attack on defense counsel deprives defendants of due process and fair trial. As Scholars at Risk has emphasized in their recent statement, where the defendant is a scholar detained for non-violent expressions of opinion, as in this case, this attack undermines academic freedom and sends a message of intimidation throughout the university community and society.

We urge you to immediately investigate this murder and hold the perpetrators accountable. We also urge you to protect anyone serving as counsel for defendants who have been threatened, as was the case here, by all of the governmental powers available to Pakistan’s central and local authorities.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copies to:

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor
107-Tipu Block
New Garden Town
Lahore-54600, Pakistan
E-mail: hrcp@hrcp-web.org

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

Committee of Concerned Scientists

c/o Alexandra R. Bender, Executive Director
P.O. Box 273
Mountainhome, PA 18342
abender@concernedscientists.org